Meg Leder at Penguin Life acquired North American rights to Always Remember: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse and the Storm by Charlie Mackesy from Matthew Freud at Freuds Group, with Laura Higginson at Ebury taking U.K., Commonwealth, and translation rights. The book, per the publisher, finds “four unlikely friends wandering through the wilds again. They’re not sure what they are looking for. They do know that life can be difficult, but that they love each other, and cake is often the answer. But when the dark clouds come, can the boy remember what he needs to get through the storm?” Publication is set for October.

Amy Einhorn at Crown picked up world rights, at auction, to The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne from Katelyn Detweiler at Jill Grinberg Literary Management, for a spring 2026 release. The novel, according to the agency, is “set against the backdrop of a Saturday Night Live–esque show and follows a reporter who sets out to write an exposé about the breakout star of an iconic sketch show who disappeared 40 years ago, revisiting the comedy scene of 1980s New York City in all its drug-induced highs and lows, seediness, misogyny, and razor-sharp humor.”

Kerry Donovan at Berkley preempted North American rights to Elena Armas’s Icarus University series from Jessica Watterson at Sandra Dijkstra and Associates. The series, says the agency, is set “in a small Upstate New York college town where the life of a fashion empire’s only heiress is threatened after her mother’s death, and she must enlist the protection of a man whose fortune and secrets rival her own.” The series starter, Alma Vampires, is set for publication in fall 2026.

Yaniv Soha at Atria took U.S. rights, in an exclusive submission, to Sleeper Hunter by Adam Leith Gollner from Jeffrey Posternak at the Wylie Agency. The book, per the publisher, is based on Gollner’s 2024 Vanity Fair feature telling “the true story of one of the art world’s preeminent investigators of so-called sleepers—masterworks hiding in plain sight—and the winding saga of his pursuit of a single Dutch masterpiece stolen in 1978.” No publication date has been announced.

Mary Altman at Sourcebooks Casablanca bought world English rights, at auction, to Rational Creatures and a second, untitled historical romance by Gabe Cole Novoa from Lara Perkins at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, for release in fall 2026 and summer 2027, respectively. The publisher called Rational Creatures “a reclaimed retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion in which a trans man is reunited with the man he almost married years ago and still loves, but whose heart he broke.”

In Brief

  • Tim Bartlett at St. Martin’s netted world rights to Sen. Cory Booker’s Stand from Jennifer Joel and Esther Newberg at CAA, for a November release.
  • Suzanne O’Neill at Grand Central took world rights to Rob Riggle’s Grit, Spit, and Never Quit: A Marine’s Guide to Comedy and Life from Albert Lee and Byrd Leavell at UTA, for publication in November.
  • Ardyce Alspach at Union Square picked up world rights to Julia Laurel’s adult fantasy debut, An Embodiment of Souls, pitched as “A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians meets Mortal Follies,” from Ernie Chiara at Fuse Literary, for a November 2026 release.
  • Jessica Case at Pegasus won U.S. rights, at auction, to Y.M. Abdel-Magied’s debut novel, At Sea, “a literary environmental thriller set on an offshore oil rig,” from Charlie Tooke at Canongate, for a May 2026 release.
  • Hannah Moushabeck at Interlink bought world rights to an untitled memoir by Palestinian American journalist Tariq Ra’ouf, unagented, for a summer 2026 release.
  • Eric Obenauf at Two Dollar Radio took world rights, unagented, to Brenda Iijima’s “darkly comic social critique” Shelter Is Necessary for Existence, for publication in September 2026.